The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-05-19

w hat Is lts Tod heip usl" no footllghtS,
but tragedy ghastlier and mightier than Ris-
tori or Edwin Booth ever enacted. No light,
no fire, no bread, no hope. Shivering in the
cold, they have had no food for twenty flour
hours You say "Why don't they beg7'
They do, but shey get nothing. You say:
"Why don't they deliver themselves over to
the almshouse" All, you would not ask that
if you ever heard the bitter cry of a man or
a child when told that he must go to the aims
house.
"Oh!n you say, "they are vicious poor, and,
therefore, they do not deserve our sympathy"
Are they vicious! So much moro need they
your pity. The Christian poor, God helps
them. Through their night there twinllles
the round, merry star of hope, and through
the broken window pane they see the crys-
tails of heaven; but the vicious poor, they are
more to be pitied. Their last light has gone
out. You excuse yourself from helping them
by saying they are so bad, they brought this
trouble on themselves. | reply, where l give
ten prayers for the innocent who are suffer
ing | will give twenty prayers for the guilty
who are suffering.
The fisherman, when he sees a vessel dash
ing into the breakers, comes out from his hut
and wraps the warmest fannels around those
who are most chilled and most bruised and
most battered in the wreck; and | want you
to know that these vicious paor have had two
hipwrecks-shipwreck of the body, ship
wreck of the soul-shipwreclz for time, ship
wreck for eternity. Pity, by all means, the
innocent who are suffering, but pity more the
guilty.
Pass on through the alley. Open the door.
"O," you say, 'it is locked" No. it is not
locked 1t has never been locked. No
1 fo
| steal ANYTHING. The door is never locked.
| Only broken chair stands against the door.
Shove it back. Go in. Strike match.
Now look. Beastliness and rags. See those
glaring eyeballs Be careful now what you
say Do not utter any insult; do not utter
any suspicion, if you value your life. What
| is that red mark on the wall! 1t is the mark
of murderer's hand!
Look at those eyes rising up out of the
darkness and out from the straw in the cor
ner, coming toward you, and as they
come near you your light goes out Strike
another match. Ali this is a babe, not like
those beautiful children presented in baptism.
| This little one never smiled; it never will
smile. A flower flung on an awfully barren
beach. Oh! heavenly Shepherd, fold that
little one in Thy arms. Wrap around you
your shawl or your coat tighter, for the cold
wind sweeps through
Strike another match. Ali is it possible
| that that young woman's SCARED and bruised
face ever was looked into by maternal tender
nesss Utter no scorn. Utter no harsh word
| No ray of hope ever will dawn On that brow
But the light has gone out Do not strike
another light. 1t would be mockery to
lindle another light in such a place as that
| Pass out and pass down the street. Our
|
great cities are full of such homes, and the
worst time the third watch of the night.
Do you know it is in this third watch of the
night that criminals do their worst work?
| r. is the criminals watch.
At $50 o'clock you will find them in the
| drinking saloon, but toward II they go to
| their garrets. they get out their tools, then
| they start on the street. Watching on either
| side Cor the police, they go to their work of
darkness. This is burglar, and the false
| kew will soon touch the store lock. This is an
incendiary, and before morning there viii be
a Iipht on the sky and & cry of ''Firel firer'
| This is an assassin, and tomorrow morning
/ there will be dead body i'll one of the vacant
lots During the daytime these Villains in
our cities lounge about, some asleep and some
awake, but when the third watch of the night
arrives. their eye keen, their brain cool, their
arm strong, their foot feet TO fly or pursue,
they are ready.
Many of these poor creatures were brought
I'D in that way. They were born in a thieves
garret. Their childish toy was burglars
dark lantern. The first thing they remember
was their mother bandaging the brow of their
father, struck by the police club. They be-
gan by robbing boys pockets, and now they
have come to dig the underground passage to
the cellar Of the bank and are preparing to
blast the gold vault.
Just so long as there are neglected children
of the street just SO long we will have these
1esperadoes. Some one, wishing to make a
good Christian point and to quote passage
Of Scripture, expecting to get a Scriptural
passage in answer, said to one of these poor
lads, cast out and wretched: "When your ia
ther and your mother forsake you, who then
viii take you upF' And the boy said: "The
rerlice! the perfect"
In the third watch Of the night gambling
does its worst work. What though the hours
be slipping away, and though the wife be
waiting in the cherries home? Stir up the
fire. Bring on more drinks Put up more
stakes That commercial, house that only q
little while ago put out sign of copartnership,
will this winter be wrecked on a gamblers
table. There will be many money till that
will spring a leak. A member of congress
gambled with a nsmber elect and won
$4,000 The old way of getting a liv,
ing is so SLOW The old way of getting q
fortune is so stupid. Come, let us toss
up and see who shall have it. And so the
work goes on, from the wheeling wretches
pitching pennies in a rum grocery up to the
millionaire gambler in the stock market
In the third watch of the night, pass down
the streets of these cities, and you hear the
click of the dice and the sharp, keen stroke Of
the ball on the billiard table At these places
merchant princes dismount, and legislators
tired of making laws, take a respite il
breaking them, All classes of people are
robbed by this crime7-the importer of for
eign silks and the dealer ia Chatham stree
pocket handkerchiefs. The clerks Of the
store take hand after the shutters are pu
up, and the officers of the court while away
their time while the jury is out.
In Baden-Baden, when that city was thi
greatest of all gambling places on earth, i
was no unusual thing the next morning, IL
the woods around about the city, to find TIN
suspended bodies of suicides Whatever b
the splendor OF surroundings, there is no ex
cuse for this crime The thunders of eterna
destruction roll i'll the deep sumble of tina
gambling tenpin alley, and as men conae on
+ TO Join the long procession of sin, all tn
drums Of death beat the dead march of
/; thousand souls.
5 In one year, in the city Of New York, ther
? were S7,000,000 sacrificed at the gaming table
: Perhaps some of your friends have bee
' ss,4itten of this sin Perhaps some Of yel
ave been smitten by it,
p, >rhaps there may be a stranger in til
bo,,Sa IN = morning come from some of til
botoIs Too>G cut for those agents of iniquit
Who tarrv orou, Il about the hotels and as
YOU: ~Would YOU he to see the cityf' "Yes,
/ "Have you ever been in that splendid build
ing up towng' "No." Then the villain WI
t undertake to show you what ae calls III
t ..lions' and the elephants" +" and after ayouh
? man, through morbid curiosity or thrC''G
| badness of soul, has seen the "lions" and tn
: elephants" he will be on enchanted ground
t Look out for these men who move around th
b hotels with sleek hatS-always sleek hats
zse